CMS Releases Market Saturation and Utilization Data Tool

By Martina Dolan on April 16, 2018

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed a Market Saturation and Utilization Data Tool that includes interactive maps and a dataset that shows national-, state-, and county-level provider services and utilization data for selected health service areas. Market saturation, in the present context, refers to the density of providers of a particular service within a defined geographic area relative to the number of the beneficiaries receiving that service in the area.

The seventh release of the data tool includes a quarterly update of the data to the fourteen health services areas from release 6, and also includes Federally Qualified Health Centers and Ophthalmology data. Release 7 will therefore include seven, twelve-month reference periods and the following health service areas: Home Health, Ambulance (Emergency, Non-Emergency, Emergency & Non-Emergency), Independent Diagnostic Testing Facilities (Part A and Part B), Skilled Nursing Facilities, Hospice, Physical and Occupational Therapy, Clinical Laboratory (Billing Independently), Long-Term Care Hospitals, Chiropractic Services, Cardiac Rehabilitation Programs, Psychotherapy, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and Ophthalmology. Also new to Release 7 is a trend analysis graphing tool that allows users to graph the percentage change and trend over time at the national level for the available metrics and health services areas.